Patient Perception and Satisfaction Questionnaire for Microtia Reconstruction: A New Clinical Tool to Improve Patient Outcome

Background: Patients' satisfaction is an increasingly important indicator for successful ear reconstruction surgeries. However, there is no scientifically sound patient-based outcome instrument in this field. This study aims at developing a patient-reported outcome measure for microtia reconstruction for investigating patients' satisfaction and perception of reconstructed ear and clinical researches. Methods: The development of questionnaire included 3 stages. Traditional psychometric tests were used for analysis. At first stage, a preliminary version of the questionnaire was developed using qualitative methods, including interviews with 10 patients. At second stage, the questionnaire was field tested by survey of 76 patients. Redundant items were deleted; acceptability, reliability, and responsiveness were examined. At third stage, survey was conducted to another 94 patients with the shortened questionnaire to further evaluate the acceptability, reliability, and validity. Results: A questionnaire of 12 items for microtia reconstruction was developed. Results demonstrated the instrument satisfied the current criteria. The acceptability (missing data 0.80, item-total correlations >0.7, interitem correlation

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